I found the game play slow and very choppy on linux. I'm using the 1.4.1 java plugin and tried in both 16 bit and 24 bit color depths. I tried to start up the game in the appletviewer and see what I could figure out but you have some (un)clever server side scripting going on that requires cookies which prevents that.

One poster mentions a decent benchmark time 2x the speed of the windows time using the VolatileDuke demo. The windows tester didn't state the speed fo this box so it is not a perfect comparison - but perhaps some reasonable extrapolation could be made... I haven't done much work using VolatileImage other than running the demos - which run blindingly fast. I've also played some small games (posted in other forums here) that update the entire 640x480 window each frame and they get 30+fps.

I'm sure you are noticing some sort of problem. However, because it seems possible for graphics operations to work quickly, it would be very interesting to know the exact cause of your problem. If it is simply because you aren't using VolatileImage that might be very helpful to a lot of other people who want to make their games perform well on all platforms.

Linux today has NOT (as Sun says) a virtual machinewith the support for hardware acceleration.

At the URL given by you there's only a discussionabout the lack of H-A under Linux. Sun says that isdifficult to manage VRAM on unix systems and sothey are waiting for an extension of openGL to supportit.

Are you using VolatileImage? Yes I'm using it.

On the bug parade seems that "somebody" on "some"computer with "some" distribution of Linux runsVolatileDuke at a decent speed...Maybe it is possible, but sure it depends on its hardwareconfiguration and its own set of driver.Think also that VolatileDuke is a demo with few drawsper second, on the contrary Teranoid has many drawsper second. This makes the game run not at the fullspeed also on Windows computer with old Video hardware.

What are the small games you played?

I have tried Teranoid on Linux Mandrake 9.0 withthe last distribution of BlackDown VM. The gamerun sluggish...

I'm sure you are noticing some sort of problem.

The only problem with speed I have noticed is that on my laptop (The problem is not present on my P4 and on my P3) when it runs at 16bit, all the drawings are accelerated, on the contrary running it at 24 or 32bit most of the drawings (4:1) are not accelerated...I'm trying to fix this.

I would like to make Teranoid run on every computer,but the problem is that I'm using only pure Java code(which should run everywhere) that makes (without strange tricks) the game run fine on windows and sluggish on Linux...Now, where is the problem?Is it my code? or is Linux VM?

At the moment I have renounced to develop on Linux. I hope that will be a speedy VM for Linux in the near future.

Our next games should run fine also on Linux systems but only because they are optimized to use fewer drawings per seconds than Teranoid.

Linux today has NOT (as Sun says) a virtual machinewith the support for hardware acceleration.

To quote the reference I gave you:"Fix for this bug has been recently put back and will appear in beta3.Fix includes use of Shared Memory extension and shared memory pixmaps."

When I run the volatile demo I get 83fps on a 1.3GHz Athlon with a GeForce 2. Every frame the demo copies and entire 800x600 image and a smaller (100x100 in my case... approximately) Image sprite to show something moving.

There's also another Linux performance bug that has been closed/fixed that deals with VolatileImage and hardware accelleration under linux:

Think also that VolatileDuke is a demo with few drawsper second, on the contrary Teranoid has many drawsper second. This makes the game run not at the fullspeed also on Windows computer with old Video hardware.

Perhaps it is a few. based on what I stated above, how much more performance would teranoid need?

I have tried Teranoid on Linux Mandrake 9.0 withthe last distribution of BlackDown VM. The gamerun sluggish...

Hmm, I stopped using the BlackDown VM years ago - perhaps only the Sun VM has hardware accel support?

Quote

Our next games should run fine also on Linux systems but only because they are optimized to use fewer drawings per seconds than Teranoid.

Max Pesce

Cool. Your game looks amazing.

Remember I only argued that hardware accel is present under Linux because of the Sun bug reports. Do you still think I misunderstood them? Or, despite the bug reports do you still think the Linux hardware accell (if it even is hardware accel) is not working?

I think that Linux has a slower hardware acceleration. So it cannot do as many draws as Windows does.

When I run the volatile demo I get 83fps on a 1.3GHz Athlon with a GeForce 2. Every frame the demo copies and entire 800x600 image and a smaller (100x100 in my case... approximately) Image sprite to show something moving.

Your result seems good, but I run Teranoid under Windows XP on a slow Laptop: Celeron 650Mhz, 192Mb RAM, and a slow and cheap video card (not a GeForce).I get 75fps (in game)...

Teranoid is a special game case. It's inner loop isn't locked to a particular framerate. So if the computer is fast it can reach 180fps (for example), if the computer is slow it runs at 30fps (for example).This gives the game the possibility to do smooth animations on fast computers.

If I lock the game loop to 50fps, then the ball whenrunning at full speed will jump too many pixels per frame, making the game unplayable.

So this is the only solution I have found. Other breakouts on the net seem to run at different speedson different computers. Teranoid instead should run at the same "apparent" speed on different computers.

The problem with linux probably is caused by a low framerate, which also with this strange game loop, makes the ball jump too pixels per frame.

Yes they run well also under Windows, but are they 3D?If it's a real 3D engine using Java3D then it simple for them to use H-A.If it is fake 3D (2D graphics) then maybe they run fast because there's only a fixed background, and no more then few sprites.

Remember I only argued that hardware accel is present under Linux because of the Sun bug reports.

I didn't forget.

Do you still think I misunderstood them? Or, despite the bug reports do you still think the Linux hardware accell (if it even is hardware accel) is not working?

I don't know exactly what to think, I have to try the new projects under Linux and see what is the result.

java-gaming.org is not responsible for the content posted by its members, including references to external websites,
and other references that may or may not have a relation with our primarily
gaming and game production oriented community.
inquiries and complaints can be sent via email to the info‑account of the
company managing the website of java‑gaming.org